In flat-screen printers it is known to use a combination of two wipers, which may be respectively referred to as a working wiper and a distributing wiper, that lie above the printing screen and are jointly swivelable about a horizontal axis between two limiting positions in which one or the other wiper touches or bears upon the upper screen surface. Upon a relative displacement of the wiper assembly and the screen in one direction perpendicular to a vertical plane containing the pivotal axis, and with the working wiper pressed against the screen surface, dyestuff deposited on that surface is leveled by the raised distributing wiper and is then forced by the working wiper through the perforations of the screen onto the underlying substrate. On a subsequent return stroke, with the wiper assembly tilted into the opposite position and with the screen lifted off the substrate, the distributing wiper spreads the remaining dyestuff over the screen surface without printing.
In rotary-screen printers it is known to use a working wiper which, instead of having the usual form of a doctor blade, is designed as a magnetizable roller attracted by a magnet in an underlying printing table onto the screen during a printing stroke.